The San Juan Islands, an archipelago in N.W. Washington State, comprising some 179 square miles, have provided "convenient terrain" for several wargame campaigns fought by the Western Washington Wargamers. This is the most recent of these campaigns. In most cases we alter the scale of the maps being used increasing the land area of the islands. In the case of this campaign, we also changed the terrain and climate to better simulate the Sudan.
Two different sets of rules have been used during this campaign. For the larger, set battles, the Western Washington Wargamers' Imperialism rules have been used. For the smaller actions, Yaquinto's The Sword and the Flame rules have been used. In addition, many of Doug Johnson's ideas regarding "negative objectives" and frontiers and wargames have been incorporated. I hope that, after reading these accounts, many other Colonial- era wargamers will at least experiment with some of Doug's ideas. They may find out that some new "spirit" will be put into their Colonial wargame campaigns and battles.
To say that many of the battles have not been "rigged" would be an outright lie. Several "no-win" situations have been created in order to recreate the situation in the Sudan during the 1880's and 1890's. It is a credit to my fellow Western Washington Wargamers that most of them have carried on through these one-sided battles, even though they knew that the ultimate outcome was not always due to their generalship. Now, on to the campaign!
More San Juan Campaign:
- San Juan Campaign, Part I: Background
San Juan Campaign, Part I: Campaign Start
San Juan Campaign, Part II: Mahdist Mania
San Juan Campaign, Part III: Campaign Ends
The Sudan: Military History
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The Sudan Part I: Introduction: The Mahdi
The Sudan: First British Involvement 1884-85
The Sudan: Anglo-Egyptian Sudan Map
The Sudan: Illustration: Troop Types of Hicks' Expedition (slow: 139K)
Sudan War Bibliography
Lynn Bodin: Bio of Theme Editor for Sudan
Whalers on the Nile: Sudan Transport Boats
Wargame Figures for the Sudan
Colonial Era Wargame Rules Overview
Sudan Part II: The Khalifa Takes Control, 1885
Sudan Part II: The Invasion of Egypt, 1889
Sudan Part II: The Dongala Expedition, 1896
Sudan Part II: Advance to Omdurman, 1897
Sudan Part II: Battle of Omdurman, 1898
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